Last week, Stardock released version 6 of WindowBlinds, their Windows skinning suite, which is the first version to include full support for Windows Vista. Stardock was kind enough to provide OSNews with a copy of WindowBlinds 6.0. Read on for some findings.

I'm kind of annoyed by this 'Real users use the command line' mentality.

Sure, I tend to use the keyboard to the exclusion of the mouse. But that does not mean I do not benefit from a GUI. I like having pretty programs, which have been enhanced by the (appropriate and conservative) use of graphics and sound. I like reading in well-designed eye-friendly variable-width fonts (that is a requirement for me, given how much of my life I spend sitting before a screen). I like having my commands organized into quickly-scannable lists of commands related to a particular topic (whether you're using dropdowns or ribbons, the concept is the same). It's great being able to summon application controls or OS controls with the touch of a single key (Alt or Win, respectively) and dismissing them just as easily. It rocks to have a well-designed GUI help me to do in three to five keystrokes what would take a command-line user a modestly-sized sentence, or a pure mouse user (oh, how I pity those poor souls) twenty or thirty seconds of lining up the cursor onto the correct spots. It's always nice when programs and features look like what they represent, and work like their look suggests. And when I happen to forget a command (we all use dozens of programs, some with hundreds of commands, it happens to the best of us), it saves so much time to be able to choose the command list of my choice and browse around the list of commands until I find the correct one, as opposed to having to look up the particular arcane switch I need in a manual (or worse, if they use online 'manuals', to have to open up another application to search for this manual -- granted I have internet access at all; wireless is not nearly as ubiquitous as it could be).

And when all you're doing is randomly browsing around, or playing a game to clear your head after beating it against a particular wall one time too many, sometimes that mouse really is the superior option (although I've been known to hold 'Tab' down to cycle through links for 10-12 seconds to not have to reach for the mouse).